Restrooms in commercial or industrial settings commonly have dispensers for soaps, lotions, hair-care formulations, and a variety of other personal care products. Among other benefits, the dispensers provide a metered amount of product to a user in a completely or nearly hand-free fashion. Commonplace dispensers are wall-mounted devices that house a container for a personal care product. A pump that is in communication with the container dispenses the product from the container when actuated by a user. Some sophisticated dispensers are capable of housing two or more containers and include a plurality of associated pumps so a user can select and receive a specific desired personal care product depending on the pump that the user chooses to actuate.
After a container is emptied it is removed from the dispenser and a new refill container is replaced therein. One problem with many dispensers is that they are capable of housing many containers of similar shape and size. Consequently, a container for the wrong type of personal care product may be mistakenly placed into a dispenser during a refill procedure. If a dispenser is capable of housing two or more containers it can be particularly easy to inadvertently place a container of one personal care product into a dispenser that is intended for a different personal care product. Another problem with such generic dispensers is that if an incorrect or low quality personal care product is used as a refill, the pump may become clogged or otherwise fail to dispense the product in an optimal manner.
Another problem with many dispensers is that they can become outdated if they are too specifically adapted for particular containers of personal care products. For example, a perfectly functional container may be useless for a new or reformulated personal care product if that product is packed in a different container than the one for which the dispenser is intended.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a dispenser that is adapted to only receive particular personal care product containers. In addition, it is desirable to provide a dispenser that can be modified to receive different personal care product containers as desired. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.